Ebola

Ebola has the potential to be a real chink in the armor for patient safety. Here are some of my thoughts

1. anyone currently thinking of becoming a doctor or nurse is totally rethinking that decision right now. I am afraid we will end up with the worst HCW shortage the US has ever seen
2. That said, hospitals better start working on having an ageless workplace so their current staff can continue working past retirement age
3. IF current PPE has major limitations, working conditions are about to deteriorate. IT is very difficult to care for a patient in full hazardous material garb
4. Current guidelines for ebola recommend limiting the number of people entering an ebola patient’s room. Where does this leave all of our double check processes?
5. Taking off PPE is very challenging. Breaching infection control protocol during this is actually easy to do. We are going to need HCW monitored during the removal process. No institution has the funds to introduce a flood of new workers into the system. If so they will likely try to do this with non-professionals who might not have the same level of understanding of infection control no matter how much training they receive.

One bright spot: current health care environments are focused on financials such as cutting workers, encouraging multitasking, prioritizing efficiency over safety..

Ebola is chance to slow things down, go back to prioritizing safety..allow time for staff to think..and support each other.. make adjustments to facilitate an ageless workplace-its good for your older employees but also for all. And many times whats safe for healthcare workers is also safe for patients and vice versa

Often times when a person gets an illness like cancer, they call it their wake up call to stop spinning and start slowing down and paying attention to life and quality. Ebola is the healthcare systems’ wake up call..

About this blog: You’ve heard of Leapfrog now there’s SafetyDog!

This blog will merge ideas from management, nursing, medicine and psychology (and many others) to offer a different view of patient safety. The author has a Masters in Industrial-Organizational Psychology, a graduate certificate in Error Science and Patient Safety and also a BSN in Nursing and has worked as an RN since 1985. All comments are welcome..you never know when one of your thoughts might save a life!

Patient Safety

IOM
Institute of Medicine..their 1999 report “To Err is human” started it all.

Leap Frog Group
The Consumer Reports for hospitals. Encouraging transparency and comparison of quality and safety.

ISMP
Institute for Safe Medication Practices. If you are looking for information on safe medication practices (and unsafe ones) they have great newsletters and other resources.

IHI
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement has an entire section on patient safety.

AHRQ
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Great site from the Department of Health and Human services. Contains research articles and safety guidelines and tools. The link is to Patient safety net

Healthcare Quarterly
Best practices and peer reviewed articles. Editor is a PhD from the University of North Carolina.